author
A. V. (Andrew Valentine) Kirwan
1804–1870
A 19th-century barrister and writer, he ranged widely across travel, society, and the pleasures of the table. His best-known work, Host and Guest, blends practical food writing with the lively social world of Victorian dining.
1 Audiobook
Host and Guest : a book about dinners, dinner-giving, wines, and desserts
by A. V. (Andrew Valentine) Kirwan
About the author
Born in 1804 and dying in 1870, Andrew Valentine Kirwan is described in library and archival records as a barrister and writer. Surviving catalogs and reference pages link him with books on France, Siberia, and dining, suggesting a career shaped by wide interests rather than a single specialty.
His most famous title is Host and Guest (1864), a substantial book about dinners, wines, and desserts that helped secure his place in food-writing history. Other works associated with him include Modern France and The Ports, Arsenals, and Dockyards of France, showing the same mix of observation, commentary, and practical curiosity.
Although detailed biographical information is limited in the sources available here, Kirwan comes across as a versatile Victorian man of letters whose writing moved easily between travel, society, and gastronomy. That combination gives his books a distinctive charm: informed, social, and closely interested in how people lived.